Subjectivation, the Social and a (Missing) Account of the Social Formation
Subjectivation, the Social and a (Missing) Account of the Social Formation
Judith Butler’s ‘Turn’
This chapter engages closely with Butler’s self-named “theory of subjection.” It demonstrates that by reading Althusser through Hegel, Butler strips away Althusser’s rich understanding of the social order as uneven and overdetermined. Butler’s narrow focus on desire and a philosophical “theory of subject” gives her no way to grasp or make sense of the social formation that provides the historical conditions of possibility for all subjects. Butler’s ontology of vulnerability and finitude serves the purpose of standing in for a more rigorous account of the social formation, and this substitution proves to be a poor one, since it reduces Butler’s work to the terms of liberal political philosophy.
Keywords: Subjectivation, Social Formation, Althusser, Hegel, The Social, Interpellation, Subjection, Liberalism
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